Phoenix hospitals face burned out staff, new mutation

As the COVID-19 pandemic nears its two-year anniversary this March, Phoenix hospitals say their staff is burnt out as the virus shows few signs of slowing down and new mutations continue to arrive in the state.

The Arizona Department of Health Services reported approximately 18,229 cases and 275 new deaths on Wednesday. Maricopa County accounted for 11,123 cases and 180 deaths. About 40% of ICU beds are currently in use across the state. Just 68.1% of Arizonans are vaccinated. Dr. Marjorie Bessel, chief clinical officer of Phoenix- based Banner Health, said hospitalizations are not expected to peak in Arizona until the middle of February thanks to omicron’s high transmissibility.

“Hospitalization trends in our Arizona market continue to be of concern as confi rmed cases in our state the past three weeks have been at record highs,” she said during a Monday news briefing. “As a reminder, hospitalizations typically lag overall cases in the market by one to two weeks. For this reason, our forecasting models predict that hospitalizations from this most recent Omicron surge will peak around mid-February.”